Aubin, Bobcats stifle Coe-Brown

He looked in the scorebook after the sixth inning Friday to see if he was pitching a no-hitter, then went out and lost it in the seventh.

“It’s my fault,” he said. “I did it to myself. I jinxed it.”

The right-hander did, however, nail down a 6-1 win for the Oyster River High School baseball team over Coe-Brown Northwood Academy that went a long way toward securing home-field advantage in the first round of the Division II playoffs.

Kyle Stevens broke up the no-hit bid with a solid single to center with one out in the seventh.

“It was a 3-1 fastball,” Aubin said. “He was sitting on it and he put a good swing on it.”

The Bears’ only run scored on an error. Aubin struck out eight, walked two and hit a batter during a game that was played in a steady rain.

“The ball was slippery and I couldn’t get a grip on the curveball,” Aubin said, “so I started to pound the strike zone with a lot of fastballs. I knew that guys would want to put the ball in play, especially with weather like this you want to be in and out of the dugout.”

Coe-Brown (8-7) managed only four baserunners over the first six innings.

“He’s been a bull for me all year,” Oyster River coach Craig Walfield said of Aubin. “He gets stronger and stronger every time he goes out there. I think he’s one of the top pitchers in the state.”

“He’s a competitor,” said Coe-Brown coach Sean Ashley. “He’s got pretty good stuff and he throws pretty hard. I’d seen him pitch against St. Thomas and what I liked about him is he wants the ball no matter what.”

Aubin was locked in a pitcher’s duel with Coe-Brown’s Andrew Lang, who allowed two runs and two hits through six innings.

Leading 2-0, the Bobcats (9-6) erupted for four runs in the seventh, highlighted by Tim Stringer’s two-run homer that was ruled a home run despite the Bears’ protests that the ball bounced over the fence.

Andrew Wolcott also had an RBI single in the frame.

“That was huge,” Aubin said of the late rally. “If I’m in a situation in the bottom of the seventh where the winning runs are in scoring position I don’t think Coach gives me the leash. I think he comes in with Chris Clement or Andrew Wolcott and has them finish it up. But with that extended lead I think he gave me a bigger leash and he wanted me to go get it.”

Oyster River went ahead to stay with two runs in the fourth on a fielder’s choice by Sam Sanborn and an RBI single by Pieter Zwart.

Lang had retired seven straight batters until running into trouble in the seventh. The Bobcats finished with only four hits, but took advantage of errors and walks in the fourth and seventh.

“Two years ago we had a two-run lead here and we ended up losing in extra innings,” Walfield said. “I told the guys when we the had the 2-0 lead it would really be nice to put a couple more up there and give us some room to breathe.”

Oyster River has won two in a row, four of five and six of eight with one game left in the regular season.

The Bobcats, who swept the season series from the Bears, were coming off a 4-0 win over Windham on Thursday.

“These guys are actually starting to peak at the right time,” Walfield said. “It’s been a three-year push to get them to understand you’ve got to play every game like it’s a playoff game.”